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PCHR Participate in Mission to 15th Session of UN Human Rights Council

September 21, 2010

16 September 2010

From 13-17 September 2010, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) participated in a joint mission to the 15th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The mission was organized by the Euro-Med Human Rights Network and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and also included a representative of Al Haq. PCHR was represented in the mission by Mr. Hamdi Shaqqura, Deputy Director of PCHR for Programs Affairs, and Daragh Murray, Legal Officer.

The mission’s primary purpose was to secure the effective implementation of the recommendations made by the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the ‘Goldstone Report’). Of principal importance was the pursuit of criminal accountability for all violations of international law committed in the context of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip. In light of all parties failure to conduct genuine investigations and prosecutions, the interests of victims and the demands of justice require that the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, immediately refer the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, to the International Criminal Court.

The mission asked that the Human Rights Council:

1. Condemn the failure to conduct genuine domestic investigations and prosecutions, in keeping with the requirements of international law.

2. Request that the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, immediately refer the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to the International Criminal Court.

3. Remind all States of their obligation to investigate and prosecute all those suspected of perpetrating grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, in accordance with the principle of universal jurisdiction.

In the course of the mission, the organizations met with representatives of numerous UN Member States, including Ireland, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Belgium, Norway, and the Palestinian delegation in Geneva.

On 16 September, a side event entitled ’A Demand for International Justice’ was organized within the Human Rights Council. Here the mission provided information on all parties failure to conduct genuine investigations, the pressing necessity of recourse to mechanisms of international criminal justice, and the recommendations of the mission.